All the Advantages of Mulching Your Garden

A mulch is a layer of organic material applied to the surface soil of your garden. You can use…

Shredded Leaves

Dried Grass clippings

Wood chips

Bark chips

Straw mulch / field hay / salt hay

5 reasons why you need mulching in a single row garden.

Reduces the amount of water that evaporates from soil, greatly reducing the need to water

Improves the quality of your soil by breaking up clay and allowing better water and air movement through the soil

Provides nutrients to sandy soil and improves its ability to hold water

Acts as an insulating layer on top of soil, keeping it cooler in the summer

Mulch keeps weeds down, and the weeds that do grow are much easier to pull

Out of those 5 reasons to use a mulch in a row back yard garden, SFG only needs 2 of them. Why? Because in a SFG, you already automatically have the other 3 without doing anything, It’s all built in to the SFG System, at no additional work, no tools, no expense.

In fact, if you consider SFG takes only 20 % of the space of a row garden, you will save another 80 % of that 60 % which equals only 8 % of the amount of cost and work. Know anything else that takes only 8 % of the cost and work. Square Foot Gardening does.

10 Comments

I have a whole bunch of wood chips in bags in my yard leftover from my dad’s flower gardening. I’m trying my hand at winter gardening this year and I was wondering if I could use the wood chips for mulching. Someone told me to avoid wood chips because they are too acidic. Is this true?

By mulch I assume you mean to spread your wood chips over the top of your garden to protect and to provide insulation to the soil. You don’t mean mixing it in do you? That acidity depends a lot on the type of tree. The other possible problem with wood chips is as they decompose, they take a lot of nitrogen out of the ground. So what I have done in the past, is make an entire pile of wood chips to compost and I just leave them there for a year. Surprisingly when I come back, they are all decomposed and a very nice compost to add to the other types or sources of material for composting. No work, no turning, no effort.

Tell me a little more about your garden. I don’t know what state you live in but when you said winter gardening, it must be in one of the southern coastal states. One other comment, some people add their wood chips to their regular compost pile, but that usually doesn’t work out because the wood chips take too long to decompose. That’s why I’ve always made a separate pile of wood chips. What plants to you plan to grow and describe your garden in a little more detail for me?

You didn’t mention what state you are in and what your summers are like. One of the reasons for adding mulch on top of your growing soil is to keep the hot summer sun from baking the soil mix where the roots are. The advantage of Mel’s Mix is that all 3 of the ingredients are good at holding water until the roots can take it up. I’m assuming from your letter that you are talking about adding mulch on top of the growing soil mix and I would put on a minimum of 1 inch…in fact 2 inches are better. If you live in Arizona or Texas, put on 3 inches.

Are you plants wilting or is there any sign that they are heating up or have a lack of water? I hope that helps out.

MEL, help. I installed 6 beds using the SFQ method in the Spring….I had a wonderful summer growing season and then the bugs happened. The person who directed me, put composting bins in the center of EACH bed….the waste goes directly into those bins with the worms. I’m thinking that this has effected the soil and the growth. The soil has mold, mushrooms etc. Now we’ve had a wet and rainy season in Georgia, however, the only thing growing right now are herbs and tomotoes. Everyting else is wilting and dying.

I would not put a compost pile next to your garden for the very reason that the composting pile is “decomposing”. In other words, the material is rotting. It might be rotting with air which is good for the composting operation. But if you have had a lot of rain and air cannot get into the pile to fan the flames, sort of speaking, that’s when the mold and mushrooms will grow. Not a good neighbor to your vegetable garden.

It sounds like a good idea, but I would separate the composting operation from your garden. I think all your problems have been the result of the weather. We’ve heard many complaints from the south of so much rain and so little growth this past year. What I would suggest is that you move the compost piles now if you can, refresh your soil by adding some new Mel’s Mix and start a fall garden. Let’s see how that works. Check the book for ideas of what and when to plant in your state. I hope that helps and gives you a better garden experience.

Best Wishes,
Mel

Gordy, WisconsinOctober 3, 2013 at 3:15 pm -

3 new SFG garden beds in all summer. Beans and cukes did well. Planted the fall crop of lettuce and spinach and now they have sprouted with little to no growth since. ??? Been 2 weeks

Dear Gordy,
I’m sorry to hear that your current crop is not doing as well. Did you remember to mix in at least a trowel full of blended compost into each square? It’s also important is to rotate what you grow in each square every time you plant. Different plants will use more or less of certain nutrients and you want to rotate from leaf, fruit, and root type of plants to help balance out the nutrient usage. An example of this would be to plant lettuce, peppers and then carrots in a square. Another thing to do is to call your local County Agriculture Agent and see if there are any local conditions that are affecting your garden.
Best Wishes,
Mel